Not bulletproof
by Brentinator
Summary: Another day, another meta human attack. Normal, right? Not this time around...Rated T for blood and graphic-ish detail.


**Ahh! My birthday one shot is here!**

 **Yes, I am 15 today! To think I was 13 and a half when I joined the site...that's scary.**

 **Thanks to Aliqueen16, TheEliteLabRatsLover and my older sister for helping me make this one shot possible. You all wrote bits of it and I'm not sure if ANY of the first draft is in here anymore lol :'D**

 **As well as my birthday, it is also Memorial Day. Thank you to all vetrins (sorry, I suck at spelling lol) for risking everything for your country, and thank you to all the spouses and kids of vets as well. You are greatly loved and appreciated.**

 **And now, on with the story!**

"Happy birthday, Barry." Patty smiled widely, hugging her boyfriend around the neck with one arm, holding a drink in the other.

"Thanks, Patty." Barry replied, breaking off the hug while looking at the several party guests, before turning back to his girlfriend. "Did you plan this?"

"No, I did." A third voice piped in as the couple turned to see Iris standing behind them, a grin on her face as well. "I figured you needed something like this, with how much you've been working lately. Happy birthday."

"Thanks Iris." Barry smiled as he and Iris hugged, but when he looked up, he saw Cisco motioning him over with a frantic gesture.

He frowned slightly. "Um, I'll be right back. But thank you both." Barry excused with a smile, backing away from the two females before feeling his back collide into something. Or rather into someone.

"Dad!" Barry broke into a wide grin as he turned around and Henry hugged him.

"Happy birthday, Slugger. How've you been?" He asked, pulling away with a large smile as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Um, Dad, I've kinda have to go do something, but I'll be back in a flash." Barry emphasized, and luckily, Henry understood.

"Go, we'll catch up later." Henry declared. Barry nodded before following Cisco as fast as he could without drawing attention into a back hall of the house.

"Alright, what's going on?" Barry asked, slightly exasperated before looking over Cisco's shoulder as he turned on his phone to show the live news footage, showing a female in full black leather and very short brown hair, a steal glare plastered on her face as fire shot out of her fist towards the building.

"It's a holdup. Six pedestrians and four police officers are being held by this female who is shooting fire out of her hands, and if she's not a meta human, then I don't know who is. I know it's your birthday, and your day off, but-"

"Relax, Cisco. I'll go now." Barry cut him off before adding. "Just, distract everyone from noticing the guest of honor isn't here. Especially Patty."

"You got it." Cisco nodded, looking back down at the phone, feeling a rush of wind across his face.

Meanwhile, the meta human smirked, starring down at her tied up victims, cocking a gun towards one just as a stern male voice demanded.

"Put the gun down!"

She turned, a clear look of disgust and impatience on her face as she turned to see exactly who she was trying to lure out.

"Flash. What a surprise." She replied sarcastically as she turned, aiming the gun at his chest.

"Let them go." Barry insisted as the meta scoffed, walking towards him, gun still aimed on him, but keeping a good defense on the hostages as well.

"Well, looks like it was it was a bad idea to come out here."

Barry tried to run around her as a large burst of fire formed in her hand before she threw it at Barry, hitting him right in the stomach, forcing him to stop in his tracks as he fell on the ground, panting heavily.

The meta aimed her gun a second time and started shooting rapidly at the speedster, who quickly moved and continued to dodge the bullets before her gun finally was empty a few minutes later, giving him a chance to run behind her and save everyone, which he took, before tying up her up and speeding her to STAR labs, securing the pipeline.

"Well, anything to say?" He asked, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow as she smirked, evil lacing her voice.

"Happy birthday, Allen."

Barry was taken aback by that. How did she know who he was? How did she know him? Barry shook it off, not trying to show his shock as he closed the doors, changed and sped back to the party, straight to Cisco.

"Metahuman is secured in the pipeline, we'll interrogate her later. What'd you tell Patty?"

"Well-"

"There you are!" Patty yelled, cutting him off as she stood in between them. "Where were you? Cisco told me you were in the bathroom but you were in there for awhile."

"I'm OK, Patty." Barry smiled before being hit with a wave of dizziness and hot searing pain in his abdomen as he slumped against the wall.

"Barry? Are you OK?" Patty asked, supporting him under his arm as he shook off the dizzy spell and the pain faded a bit to a dull heat.

"Yeah. Just got dizzy for a second." Barry grinned, hiding a grimace as he wrapped his arm around her. "Let's enjoy the party."

Patty nodded as the two walked away, Cisco shooting Barry a look of concern before shaking it off, walking away, but making sure to keep a eye on Barry.

"I'll be right back, Patty." Barry smiled, heading towards the bathroom, before getting hit with another dizzy spell, putting his hands on the wall, starting to wait it out, before feeling something sticky run down his side in which he lifted up his shirt, seeing a large pool of blood on his side, as it slowly trickled down.

Meanwhile, Cisco saw the clear fear on Barry's face, ran over and helped him sit down, his shirt falling back down over the nasty wound.

"You OK, man?"

Barry held his right side as his breathing became labored out of panic and the dizziness got worse while he tried his hardest to focus on Cisco's face, letting out a deep breath with a cracked voice.

"Get Caitlin."

Cisco painfully left his friend alone as he texted Joe about the situation, telling him to get Patty out of there while running over to where Caitlin and Iris were talking over a drink.

"If you two are done having "girl talk", we have a emergency." Cisco hissed, snapping both of them out of their possible slightly drunk state. Caitlin immediately set down the glass on the table and followed Cisco to the hallway where Barry was in and out of consciousnesses, Caitlin gently setting her hand on his shoulder, making him hiss and squeeze his eyes shut, trying to pull away from her.

"We need to get to STAR labs. We also need to get Patty out of here."

"I already texted Joe. He pulled her away on a "emergency case" while we get him out of here."

"Good. We need to move him to the van."

With Henry, Iris and Caitlin in the back of the van with Cisco driving at the speed limit, it became very crowded, not to mention, the bullet was still lodged inside his body, and they needed to remove it as soon as possible, however, as they were on the way to STAR labs, Caitlin noticed his flesh starting to enclose around the bullet and his organs. Now his chances were slimmer than ever, and even though his super healing was handy at time, it could now cause his death.

"I need you two to hold him down." Caitlin told them as she grabbed some of the medical equipment in the van, setting it on a small table that was bolted to the van before placing a oxygen mask over his face and connecting several monitors on his chest. "His cells are regenerating with the bullet still inside the right side of his abdomen and very close to his stomach. I can't give him any anesthesia or pain medication, it won't work, but if I don't get this bullet out, then he's gonna die."

Iris put her hands around Barry's arms as Henry held down Barry's legs, both with very little room in the likelihood that Barry would wake up.

The female doctor put on a pair of gloves, and lowered the scalpel to his abdomen area when Barry startled awake, pushing against the arms that held him down, clear panic in his brown pupils.

"Barry, Barry, you need to breathe." Iris told him, gently stroking his hair as she felt him slowly relax under her hold, as she put her hand back around his arm. "Caitlin needs to get a bullet out of you. It's OK if you pass out again, do you understand?"

Barry slowly nodded as Caitlin lowered the scalpel down again, and started cutting away the skin, before the entire van was filled with a ear piercing scream.

"Caitlin, what was that?" Iris asked, fear lacing her voice when the scream finally died away and Barry had passed out again.

"I hit the bullet." She replied, grabbed the tweezers as she pulled out the bullet, grabbing the thick gauze and holding it on the sizeable wound before frowning. "He has a pretty high fever, even for a metahuman."

"Is it possible the bullet was poisoned?" Henry suggested, but praying it wasn't true as Caitlin started checking the monitors.

"Oh yeah. Every monitor is detecting foreign matter. That's why it hurt Barry so much when I hit the bullet. I must've let the poison out." Caitlin realized, biting her lip.

"We're here, guys." Cisco's voice told them over the intercom before getting out of the van and opening the doors of the back as Caitlin, quickly detached the equipment as Caitlin, Iris and Henry pushed the gurney with Barry on it into STAR labs.

As soon they got the speedster into the appropriate lab room, Caitlin shooed them out. "I have to work fast..." she murmured, getting her supplies and putting on a pair of blue latex gloves.

Caitlin knew what she had to do, she grabbed a sterile IV needle and quickly but precisely lead it into the bulging blue vein in his hand, instantly hooking him up to an IV bag with the antidote and fluids.

She sighed, knowing she was lucky enough that he didn't need a blood transfusion from blood loss. She would have a serious talk with him about this later.

Caitlin was pulled away from the computers and medical equipment by the sound of choking and gasping. "Barry!" She exclaimed, rushing over to his side.

Her hands hovered over him with uncertainty as his breathing became more desperate. She knew this was a work of the poison, but she wasn't sure how to fix it. When she had become a part of Star Labs as a bio-engineer, the last thing she had expected was to be a doctor for a speedy young superhero.

She watched as his eyes shot open and pleading for her to help. "Barry, Barry relax, calm down," she told him. "You're gonna be okay."

"Cait..." he gasped, grabbing her hand and squeezing tightly. "Help."

Caitlin rushed over to the oxygen tank and mask and placed it on Barry's face, praying that it was enough to help him.

She sat beside him, not wanting to start on the bullet wound until his breathing was normal. He held her hand like it was a lifeline as he gasped, like it was the only thing keeping him in this world.

When his harsh gasping and breathing subsided a few minutes later, his eyes closed to rest, but he hadn't fallen asleep. She knew by this point that he probably didn't need many stitches, but one or two sutures would still be needed for a few hours.

Caitlin rubbed Barry's shoulder in a comforting manner before cleaning her hands and putting on the new set of gloves.

The wound was small at this point, no bigger in size than her pinky finger. It would probably take an hour total it to heal.

She poured some sterile water into it, causing him to squirm. "Ow..." he whimpered, almost silent.

After cleansing the wound, she placed some gauze on it, drying up the watered down blood in the wound.

Caitlin picked up the needle, threaded it, then pressed it firmly in his skin, causing him to gasp. "Sorry, Barry." She whispered, quickly doing two more stitches before she was finished.

After checking on Barry she threw away the disposable supplies, and cleaned herself up. When she walked back over, he was sleeping soundly, and his vitals were strong, a bit weak, but out of the woods.

"Alright, the stitches are in place and I got the poison out. He'll be a hundred percent in a few hours." Caitlin told them triumphantly as she walked into the cortex, sweat clear on her brow from the strain that was the past twenty minutes.

"Thank God." Cisco replied, holding a hand over his heart while letting out a sigh of relief as Henry put his hand on Caitlin's shoulder, a warm smile on his face.

"Thank you, Caitlin. For everything you've done for my son."

"You're welcome, Dr. Allen."

"You know you can just call me Henry, right?"

"I know, Dr- Henry." Caitlin blushed before they were interrupted by a groan from Barry as the four went over to him.

"Hey, Slugger. Good to see you awake." Henry smiled, gently placing his hand on Barry's shoulder.

"Patty?" Barry asked in a raw, quiet voice.

"Joe is distracting her." Cisco replied as Barry let out a sigh of relief before asking.

"What happened?"

"You were shot with a poisoned bullet during the holdup and since you had a adrenaline rush, we didn't notice till you had a dizzy spell outside of the bathroom." Iris explained.

Barry eye's suddenly widened as he started to sit up before Iris grabbed his shoulders, pushing him back down.

"You need to stay put."

"The meta human...she said to me after I locked her in the pipeline "Happy birthday, Allen". How did she know who I was?"

Cisco pursed his lips and started nervously moving his fingers as Caitlin sighed, looking at her patient.

"We'll figure it out in a few hours after you've recovered. Rest."

Barry nodded as Cisco, Iris and Caitlin left the room, Henry still eyeing the monitors with fear still evident in his eyes, his son propping himself up on his arm.

"Dad, I'm OK, promise."

"I know, just making sure. Love you, Slugger." Henry smiled as he pulled the blanket on his son up a bit as Barry started drifting off, whispering.

"Love you too."

Before fading into darkness as Henry smiled one more time at his son, turned off the light and followed the others.

Meanwhile, in the pipeline, the recently captured metahuman turned on her hologram projector that was surprisingly not taken from her, evil lacing the edges of her voice as she spoke, as if she had seen the future.

"I'm in STAR labs. Team Flash is as good as gone."


End file.
